Loan, land issues settled, work on Yogi Adityanath’s expressway set to begin soon

NEW DELHI: The nondescript villages of Chand Sarai in Lucknow and Haidariya in

Ghazipur

will be the two ends of the country's longest expressway. The Yogi Adityanath-
led

Uttar Pradesh

government has finalised details of the 341-km long Purvanchal Expressway,
which will be constructed at an estimated cost of Rs 13,186 crore by the end
of 2020.

Prime Minister

Narendra Modi

is expected to lay the foundation stone of the project in February or March.
Uttar Pradesh has secured assurances from banks for a loan of Rs 15,000 crore
for the project, of which Rs 2,000 crore has already been released, an
indication that lack of finances will not come in the way of completing the
project in the targeted 30 months.

Besides being the country's longest six-lane expressway, linking Uttar
Pradesh's capital to the state's eastern end, the other unique selling point
of the highway is that it will connect the state's 'three temple towns' o f
Varanasi ,

Ayodhya

and Allahabad.

While Varanasi will be connected through a widened NH that will crisscross the
expressway, the state's Public Works Department will build a link road to
Ayodhya from the expressway. The state government has also decided to build a
new link expressway that will branch out of the Purvanchal Expressway and go
till Allahabad. The government is also doing pre-feasibility study to link the
expressway to the chief minister's home town of Gorakhpur, besides a link up
with the new Bundelkhand Expressway being built from Jhansi to Kushinagar.

"This expressway will bring about development of eastern districts by
connecting these to the state capital and further to Agra and national capital
Delhi through Agra-Lucknow Expressway and

Yamuna Expressway

. The expressway has the potential to be linked with Patna- Buxar National
Highway (NH 922) at Bharauli through NH 19/31," the state government has said
in a request for qualification (RFQ) document, inviting bids through
international competitive bidding for constructing the expressway.

ET had in October reported plans of linking Delhi with Patna by a series of
expressways and highways that could reduce the ride to just 11 hours. Work is
expected to start on the Purvanchal Expressway this April, with the entire
stretch being divided into eight packages of 28-54 km each, which could be
awarded to different companies. The six-lane expressway will be designed for
speeds of 120 km/hr with the option of converting it to eight-lane.